From July 2010 to April 2011 he was held as a maximum custody detainee* at Quantico marine base in Virginia, where he sat in a fluorescent-lit 6-by-8-foot cell with no window or natural light for 23 hours per day — guards checked on him every five minutes — and was stripped naked at night because authorities deemed the elastic on his underwear could be used to harm himself.

On April 20, 2011, Manning was transferred to the Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and his conditions improved dramatically.

On Monday defense attorney David Coombs described Manning as a ‘‘young, naive, but good-intentioned’’ soldier whose struggle to fit in as a gay man in the military made him feel he ‘‘needed to do something to make a difference in this world.’’

Here's another look at Manning, whose trial is expected to run all summer (with some parts being closed to the public):

REUTERS/Gary Cameron U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning (L) departs after day two of his court martial at Fort Meade, Maryland June 4, 2013.

*In response to Manning's confinement, more than 250 of the most eminent U.S. legal scholars sent a letter to President Obama in protest of Manning's treatment; UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Ernesto Mendez called it "cruel, inhuman and degrading"; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's chief spokesman, P.J. Crowley, resigned after he publicly denounced the treatment as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."